Customs and excise services

AEO certification support

Our core expertise. We support you throughout your AEO certification process: analysing your processes, preparing the application and securing compliance, so that you obtain and keep your certification — a genuine lever of reliability and fluidity in your international trade.

• Drawing up the implementation strategy
• Identifying the exclusion criteria, before anything is filed
• Completing the self-assessment and managing the annexes to the file
• Careful preparation and filing of the application
• Support during the customs audit
• Follow-up through to approval, and maintaining the status

Everything about AEO certification

Customs compliance audit

We check that all your customs operations comply with the rules, identify and correct the points of risk, and improve the efficiency of your procedures, so that your international trade stays safe and fluid.

• Contracts and customs representation mandates (commercial strategy and risk assessment)
• Client screening (analysis of the full supply chain)
• Analysis of the physical flows of goods
• Analysis of electronic flows and management of records (data collection and management)
• Analysis of internal procedures for obtaining and managing customs authorisations
• Analysis of compliance in dealings with the customs authorities
• Analysis of customs declarations
• Analysis of customs guarantees, and optimisation
• Analysis of tariff classification and of Binding Tariff Information (BTI)
• Analysis of the flows and documents relating to the origin of goods (trade agreements, and so on)
• Analysis of import and export control procedures (licences, dual-use goods, certificates)
• Analysis of goods and flows subject to CBAM, and regulatory outlook
• Drafting or consolidating internal procedures, and quality control based on stable indicators

Annual certification audit

The recurring appointment that keeps your status: an annual audit checking that your customs operations comply, and identifying where they can be improved.

• Full assessment of your customs procedures
• Analysis of your declaration formalities
• Identification of areas for improvement, with recommendations tailored to you
• Action plan to cover the risks and improve the procedures
• Annual certification audit report — the official document for the customs authorities

Customs authorisation applications

We assist you in preparing and filing your customs authorisation applications, whether European (EU Customs Trader Portal) or national.

• Analysing your needs and defining the authorisation strategy
• Full preparation of the files (customs warehousing, inward processing, and so on)
• Identifying authorisations that depend on another authorisation being granted first
• Filing applications with the authorities and following them up
• Technical and strategic support throughout the process

Excise — a field of its own

Excise is not an appendix to customs: its products, statuses and movements follow their own rules. We support applications for tax warehouses, registered consignee and consignor statuses, and authorisations covering e-cigarette liquids.

Browse the authorisation catalogue

Special procedures

In a complex European environment, protect yourself from needless cost through solutions matched to your actual flows. Each procedure answers a specific situation — the point is to choose the right one.

• Customs warehousing — storing non-Union goods in an approved place. No import duty, no other charges, no commercial policy measures while the goods are stored. You pay only on release for free circulation — and never at all if the goods leave again. The authorisation has no time limit.
• Inward processing — processing non-Union goods within the Union without their being subject to import duty. Duties and charges are suspended. Covers fitting, assembly, processing and repair. Authorisation for up to five years.
• Outward processing — temporarily exporting Union goods to be processed outside the EU. The processed products return with total or partial relief from duty: the charge does not fall on the full value of the reimported goods.
• Temporary admission — using non-Union goods within the Union where they are intended to leave again unaltered. Total or partial relief from duty, with no other charges and no commercial policy measures. Maximum period of 24 months, unless otherwise provided.
• End-use — release for free circulation at a reduced or nil rate because of the use prescribed by the tariff. Duty is reduced, sometimes to nothing. Take care: the advantage extends neither to VAT, nor to excise, nor to anti-dumping duties — and if the prescribed use is not achieved in time, duty becomes payable again at the full rate.
• Transit — moving goods under customs supervision between or across customs territories. Duties, taxes and commercial policy measures are suspended until destination: no need to clear the goods at every frontier crossed.

All these procedures require an authorisation and, in most cases, a guarantee. We assess what they will really cost before you commit.

Technical support

Expertise on the questions that determine what you pay and what you must be able to prove — including obtaining the decisions that secure your position for the long term. Two strands, rarely separable within the same file.

Fiscal strand

• Tariff classification and tariff decisions — determining the heading, and obtaining Binding Tariff Information (BTI) where the classification deserves to be secured.
• Customs value — method of determination, simplifications and valuation decisions: treatment of fulfilment, flat-rate transport costs, recurring adjustments.
• Rules of origin — preferential and non-preferential origin, proofs and cumulation.
• Anti-dumping and countervailing duties
• Quotas

Import compliance analysis — non-fiscal strand

A tariff heading does not tell the whole story. A perfectly classified consignment can still be held up for want of a certificate, an authorisation or a marking. On request, we check in advance whether your goods meet the European and national requirements, and which of them actually apply to your products.

• Sanitary and phytosanitary standards — FASFC controls
• CE marking and product standards
• CITES — protected species of wild fauna and flora
• CBAM — the carbon border adjustment mechanism
• Environmental and climate rules, including the EUDR
• Other prohibitions and restrictions

Release of goods and procedures

• Administrative procedures relating to the compliance of goods
• Destruction, abandonment and re-exportation

Customs procedures and formalities

Two distinct levels: what organises your customs activity, and what you actually file in the systems.

Customs procedures

• Special procedures
• Records and traceability
• Managing customs controls

Customs formalities

• Registration in the register of customs representatives
• Customs authorisations
• Access to customs systems
• Filing declarations: data requirements and help in completing them

Day-to-day support for your teams

• All declaration formalities — steady support on your real flows, rather than a one-off intervention.
• Following up the declaration — applications for invalidation, regularisation and repayment.
• Customs controls — responding to requests for information, both at the frontline and after the event.
• Every dealing with customs — more broadly, your teams are never left alone with a task or a question from the administration.

Outsourced declaration processing

For businesses that would rather concentrate on their core activity, we take on the whole declaration process — from gathering the data through to passing it to the customs representative.

1. Gathering the data — collecting all the necessary information from the principal.
2. Checking and compliance — verifying customs and tax compliance, covering export control, the EUDR, CBAM and the general compliance of consignments.
3. Certifying the declaration process — validating and certifying the file against the legal requirements in force.
4. Liaising with the principal — going back and forth to clear blocking points or obtain further information.
5. Passing to the customs representative — submitting the validated data for entry into the customs systems.

Value on both sides

• For businesses — outsource your formalities without losing compliance or visibility over your operations.
• For customs representatives — receive complete, checked and compliant files, and finalise the operations with confidence.

E-commerce operations

We assist businesses active in e-commerce in securing their flows, ensuring customs compliance and improving their operational processes.

• Guidance and training for operational teams
• Identifying and managing the customs risks attached to e-commerce flows
• Checking and improving the compliance of customs formalities (import and export)
• Putting in place internal processes for efficient and compliant exchanges
• IOSS, distance selling and the 2026 customs reform

Customs and excise training

Our training makes your customs operations simpler and safer while keeping them compliant. Whether you are a beginner or experienced, every programme is tailored to your products, your procedures and your needs.

• A core of 25 modules across 8 fields, combined to order
• Two ready-made paths: 4 days, or 6 half-days with the in-depth manual
• A layer of exercises built around your own products and real flows
• A customs manual made available to your teams
• A field devoted to excise: products, statuses and movements
• Support towards teams becoming progressively self-sufficient
• Taking part in research work

See the full programme